Black Protester Assaulted At Trump Rally Seeks Hate Crime Charge

Mercutio Southall, a Black protester who was violently ousted from a Donald Trump rally last month, is seeking the possibilities of bringing hate crime charges forth. Who those charges will go against hasn’t been specified but Southall seems close to calling for a deeper investigation.

Mercutio Southall, who was violently kicked out of a Donald Trump event in Alabama last month, plans to meet with the Birmingham Police Department next week to discuss a hate-crime investigation.

Southall provided a letter to The Daily Beast that written by his lawyers. It criticized the lack of investigation into the incident from the department itself. Birmingham Police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards previously told The Daily Beast that as of late last month, the department was not going to actively pursue the incident as a hate crime. Edwards was dismissive of Southall in the past saying, “Our department is very familiar with Mr. Southall and that’s just what he does at times. I think it’s worked out pretty good because he’s gotten a lot of attention.”

Now, according to Southall, he and his lawyers have secured a meeting to discuss the matter further.

“In 2015, fifty years passedd [sic] the civil rights movement, I was (metaphorically) lynched in broad daylight while they were being cheered on,” Southall told The Daily Beast about the event. “A couple blocks away from the civil rights museum.”

Southall’s legal team stated that a Birmingham police officer was in attendance at the rally, which took place on November 21. Southall, who was wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt, shouted chants and disrupted Trump’s rally until he was swarmed and escorted violently out of the venue. Southall is said to have suffered a concussion if statements from his attorneys hold true.

Trump said the next day of the November fracas that Southall deserved to be assaulted, which angered many.